272 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
January 0. 
sharp frost to wheel in the soil, which ought to he emptied 
off planks, remembering to fill the beds six inches higlier 
than the surrounding ground so as to allow for subsiding. 
Plaids .—These will consist of Eliododenth’ons, Azaleas, 
Kalmias, Andromedas, Ledums, Gaultherias, lUiodoras, A’ae- 
ciniums, Ericas, Epigmas, Menziesias, Daphnes,Empetrums, 
h'abianas, A’o. These form the heads of the various families, 
but the individual members liad better be selected by the 
planter wlien in bloom. 
riantiny .—The principal tlimgs to regulate doing tliis are 
colour, distance, and ultimate height. Ehst of all, let the 
colours be so arranged that each plant forms a conti'ast to 
its neighbour; and to do this effectually it ought to be done 
on paper first, so that one may have time to give it an liour 
or two’s consideration. By so doing the work will be gone 
about systematically, and not with that bungling which is 
sure to follow an arrangement the mere impulse of the 
moment. Sufficient distance from plant to plant is very 
seldom given. We can see this every-day in our plant-liouses, 
wall-trees, flower-garden, &c. By giving one plant tlie space 
generally allotted t(} two the result will be far more satis¬ 
factory. Ultimate height ought to be kept in mind, so as to 
have the tallest plants in the middle. 
Wulhs .—-If good gravel is to be had nothing will beat 
that for walks in this garden ; but if that ii? of an indifferent 
quality, then let them be made of asphalt or concrete, and 
edged with stone, slate, or neat paving-bricks. 
Afler-trealmenl.—The plants will require to be supplied 
with water for the first summer or two after planting, and 
mulching will be of great service to them in long-continued 
drought. Digging amongst them is a practice which ought 
never to be tolerated; for by so doing all the surface-roots 
(and they are in all cases the best) are cut off, wdiicli sends 
those left down to the bottom in search of food, which is 
generally of an indifferent quaUty; hence, disease which is 
so often met with.—J. Bust. 
, POULTRY DISEASES. 
WHITE C05IB IN SH.ANGHAES. 
A CORRESPONDENT writes as follows :—“ Some months ago 
T wrote to you for information and advice about a disease 
that has appeared amongst some Cochin-Chinal fowl, and 
which seemed to have been introduced by a cock purchased 
of Mr. Punchard. After that, other complaints seem to 
have been made to you about the same disease. A name 
was given to it, and a remedy pointed out, viz., to anoint the 
bird with oil and turmeric. That cure seemed to answer, 
though not entirely, and is apparently of no use after a 
certain stage of the disease. As I observe that one or two 
able remarks have been made through your publication, on 
the cure of disease of poultry, I am induced to note fully 
my observations on the disease m question, with a view' to 
ascertain what it i.s, and the remedy. 
“ The disease first appears on the comb, which appears 
white .and crisp, it gradually extends down the neck, and the 
feathers fall oft’. Old birds and chickens seem equally 
liable to it. It seems like a sort of scurf, which gradually 
extends all over the body. The bird seems apparently un¬ 
affected in health; it eats voraciously, but on examination 
it will be found poor and thin, as if the food furnished not 
its proper nourishment. After a while this semi' appears 
thick about it, apparently in a moist state; afterwards tlie 
feathers, when the bird is let out in the morning, seem to be 
in a matted state, just like the feathers of a drowned bird; 
on examination this will be found to be a sort of grease; 
during the day the grease evaporates, and the feathers become 
apparently dry; at this stage the bird begins to show' signs 
of weakness, it afterwards refuses its food and dies. 
“ My full-grown birds all quickly recovered the disease, 
but not so the chickens. Mr. Punchard’s cock had to be 
destroyed. I do not understand the nature of the disease, 
nor its cure, but it has often occurred to me, whether feeding 
birds with grey peas had anything to do with it. I under¬ 
stand Air. I’unchard gives his some occasionally, but unless 
accompanied with salt or something else, it seems to me 
that such a food must have a bad effect on the blood.—Iv.” 
In making a few remarks on the above, I must beg to be 
understood as offering them as suggestions only, having had 
no opportunity of seeing the •d'hite comh. 
I regard many of the diseases to which Poulti-y are sub¬ 
ject as aiising from high feeding and stunulating food. 
Peas and other leguminous seeds, as beans, tai'es, Ac., I 
contain a very large piroportion of a substance which in its I 
chemical and nutritive properties closely resembles animal ' 
food, the effect of their use in large quantity, or if long 
continued, i.s very likely to be the jn-oduction of such a skin I 
disease as that described. With regard to the treatment ' 
I am equally at a loss ; om- Editor states positively, tliat if 
cocoa-nut oil and turmeric are appilied at intervals of two or 
three days, as soon as the u-hite comh appears, it is a specific. 
In our correspondent’s cases the dise.ase is evidently beyond 
the reach of any local remedy. I should sugges"! the \ 
separation of the sick bird, a plain, unstimulating, wholesome 
diet—say of oatmeal and water, with a supply of green veget¬ 
ables, and the administration of some alterative medicine, as 
fioiu' of sulphur, ten grains, and calomel one grain, given 
every other night; or a three-grain Plummer’s pnll might 
be given instead. I should be glad of an opportunity to 
investigate the disease in any oases near town. 
One slight error occurs in our correspondent’s account i 
respecting the moisture on the plumage in the morning. 
This cannot, as he suggests, be grease, as in that case it 
would not become dry by exposure to the air during the 
day. W. R. Tegetmeier. | 
EARLY PART OF THE LIFE OF THE POOR 
MAE’S WELL-WISHER. 
I WAS bom of very poor parents; in fact, they were so 
poor that when I was two years old we were all in the work- 
house together, where we remained about one year; my 
father then obtained employment at the iron works in 
Staffordshire, where we all went to live ; and I wiU now tell 
you the reason that I say all of us. My mother was the 
mother of fifteen children, and there are eleven of us living 
I now ; so we are not a very few. In about six years time the 
iron works failed, and we again came to the workhouse; and, 
as I was then nine years old, I was drawn apprentice to a 
farmer, but as 1 was very small the farmer gave an old 
aunt of mine .T3 to take me off his hands, w'here I remained, 
by going to drive the plough, tend to bird scaling, to stock 
turnips, and so on, till I was fourteen. I was then off to 
service, and I do not think that ever I cost any of my re¬ 
lations twopence since ; and it now remains for me to tell 
you how I liave got on since that time. 
The first thing that ever 1 tried to get hold of was 
learning. Now', I must inform you, that when I was a boy 
schooling was very dear; and, as 1 said before, my parents 
I were very poor, so it was but a very httle schooling that came 
i to my shai'e. But do you think that I was going to be a 
1 dunce because I could not go to school? Not I,indeed;— 
the greatest deshe of my heart was to be a good scholar, 
and there was nothing going to be left untried that was 
likely to help me in gaining my object. 'The first thing that 
I had to do was to learn to read, aud I will now tell you 
how I did this. I had a Httle Common Prayer Book by 
some chance, but who gave me tliat book I cannot tell, and 
our minister was so kind as to give me a little New' Testa¬ 
ment. Now, these two books were what I learned to read 
in. I had learned a Httle before, for my old aunt had 
taught me my ABC, and a — h — ab, and so on. Now, 
with these two books under my arm, you may depend upon 
my having gone, to church as soon as ever Sunday came. If 
I did not, it was not my fault. Now, when I was at church, 
1 was at school, and the minister was my schoolmaster. I 
alw'ays read on a Httle before the minister, and when I came 
to a word that I could not tell, I spelled it over, and when 
he came to it, his reading told me what it was, and I was 
thivn sharply off to another sentence, and so on. 
So this is the w'ay that I learned to read. In my next, I 
will teU you how I learned to write. 
